Marty Supreme Finds Match Point at the Table’s Edge

Marty Supreme

★ ★ ★ ★

Marty Supreme is based on the true story of Marty Reisman, an American table tennis hustler who became a folk legend of sorts. Like any good pool shark, he would throw matches and start winning as the stakes got higher. He didn’t just win, he humiliated his opponents. But then the game changed. The paddles added spongier padding and the game became faster. Reisman couldn’t keep up, so he learned to adapt by focusing on angles and trash-talk to throw his opponents off. All of it using the old style of paddles. He won 22 major titles in a career that spanned 1946 to 2002.

In this film, Reisman is fictionalized as Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) in 1952. Marty is about to leave his uncle Murray’s (Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman) shoe store to go to London to compete in the world table tennis championship. Before he goes, he has sex with Rachel Mizler (Odessa A’zion) in the stock room. It’s important to note that Rachel lives in Marty’s apartment building with her husband Ira (Emory Cohen).

Marty getting ready to serve
© 2025 A24

In London, Marty blows the competition away but takes note of a new player from Japan named Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi). Kawaguchi is a real-life table tennis champion from Japan and his character echoes his own personal disability—they are both deaf. In the film, Koto displays a technique and a new style of paddle Marty’s never seen before. One he doesn’t yet know how to answer.

At the tournament, Marty hustles his way into a suite at the Ritz-Carlton and gets the organizers to pay for it. There he racks up obscene charges at the hotel restaurant and room service. He also meets movie star Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow) who is trying to resurrect her career with a new Broadway play, funded by her husband Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary).

Yes, O’Leary from Shark Tank. Who knew he’d be adding a compelling performance to his investment portfolio?

After the tournament, Marty heads back to his apartment in New York City. He lives with his mom Rebecca (Fran Drescher) and learns Rachel is pregnant. Marty’s still a hustler, still an aspiring table tennis champion. He believes himself to be America’s answer to the sport he’s convinced will fill American stadiums in the near future.

You’d think this film is about table tennis. It’s not by a long shot. Sure, there’s table tennis in it and when ping-pong paddles whack the ball back and forth, it’s exciting to watch.

Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser
© 2025 A24

But this film is about Marty, an unsavory character, trying to pull himself up to greatness among the horrible people who surround him. Almost none of these characters are likable, including Marty. He’s hard to root for, yet we root for him anyway.

This movie breaks the standard Hollywood movie structure in such a way you start to wonder if it will land anywhere near a profound point. Many films that take this approach fail to do so. This movie succeeds.

The plot is about Marty trying to make it to Japan to compete again, believing that he will then achieve greatness. Marty seems to believe he plans to be a better person when he reaches the top. He just has to get there.

It’s a chaotic ode to anyone who has ever dared to pursue their dreams. Marty is the character who finds out becoming great is hard—and he doesn’t care. He’s willing to sacrifice anything and everything around him to achieve that greatness. Yet he knows he’s amassed a stockpile of IOUs and I want to believe him when he says he’s going to take care of it when he gets to the top.

This film threads the needle of storytelling, weaving together elements that shouldn’t work but come together seamlessly in their own scattered tapestry of madness. It’s the kind of film that you’ll probably go home having enjoyed but not fully knowing why. The more it sits with you, the more it works.

Marty Mauser practicing
© 2025 A24

There’s one minute when we get a sense that Marty is a good person. When he might just turn things around and realize there’s more to life than raw ambition. For Marty, it might be a defining moment. Or just a fleeting pause to reflect on what matters most. Whatever the case, it defines both the film and Marty.

It’s part of what makes him so damn compelling. In many ways, his rebellious nature echoes Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Both are unwilling to grow up, have a serious allergy to phoniness and simply refuse to conform.

There’s a lesson for us in Marty Supreme, one that doesn’t preach to us, but reminds us that life will kick us to the ground and try to beat us senseless. Maybe the next time you’ve been sucker punched in the gut because you dare to take a step forward, you’ll remember Marty and his orange ping-pong ball. Maybe you’ll take a page from his book and sneer back, “What else ya got?”